The Ambulatory Surgery Center Association (ASCA) expressed its opposition to proposed legislation in Michigan that it says would be “catastrophic” to the state’s ASCs if enacted.
The Michigan Health & Hospital Association also expressed its opposition to the bill from the perspective of hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs).
Michigan HB 5770, introduced last month by State Rep. Curtis VanderWall (R) and co-sponsored by State Reps. Reggie Miller (D), Jason Morgan (D), Douglas Wozniak (R) and Ann Bollin (R), would disallow healthcare providers, including ASCs and HOPDs, from charging facility fees for professional medical services provided through telemedicine, in a facility that is not a hospital, or to a patient who is receiving outpatient service in a hospital, unless the service is provided in an emergency room or is observation.
ASCA states that the bill defines “facility fee” as a fee that “meets all the following criteria: the fee is charged or billed by a healthcare provider; the fee is intended to compensate the healthcare provider for the operational expenses of the healthcare provider; and the fee is separate and distinct from a professional fee.” ASCA states that “without facility reimbursements, ASCs cannot pay for the services and supplies needed to perform surgery and will not be able to stay in business.”
ASCA notes that since legislators in Texas introduced a bill to this effect in 2023, it has tracked similar bills in 12 other states. “As these proposals received consideration, it became evident that both advocacy organizations and lawmakers were largely unaware of the existence of ASCs, the scope of the restrictions proposed, what facility fees entail and, more generally, how pricing works in health care,” states ASCA. “Thanks to the advocacy work of state ASC associations and ASCA, these proposals have either failed to be enacted or had provisions impacting ASCs removed prior to enactment.”
Read more from ASCA on the Michigan bill here.
Read the full bill here.
